PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – The Delaware baseball program has had more than it’s fair share of great hitters through the years, but few have put together the type of season that first baseman Jimmy Yezzo is enjoying.

A junior out of Bishop Eustace High School in South Jersey, Yezzo’s .431 average is second in the country and he leads the nation with 85 hits.

“It helps the whole team’s hitting and has been hitting the entire year,” Yezzo tells KYW Newsradio. “They can’t pitch around you, there’s nowhere to put you, guys on base and then you’ve got Nicky (Ferdinand) behind me hitting the ball pretty much just as well as me.”

Yezzo can drive the baseball. His 23 doubles are tied for the nation’s lead and his 12 home runs and 58 RBI are tops in the Colonial Athletic Association.

Jimmy Yezzo Interview

“He’s got a knack to barrel the ball up,” Delaware head coach Jim Sherman tells KYW Newsradio. “He’s a free swinger, he can swing at balls out of the zone and still barrel them up. A lot of young guys can’t do that. He hits mistakes, but he’ll (also) hit good pitchers’ pitches where he can barrel them up. That separates (him) from the average college kid.”

In a loss to La Salle on Sunday, the left-handed hitting Yezzo drilled a double down the left-field line and he does his best to keep the whole park in play.

“Try to use as much of (the field) as possible,” Yezzo says. “Makes it harder on them.”

Jim Sherman Interview

The Major League Baseball draft is about a month away, and those around him expect him to hear his name called.

“There’s been a lot of talk about him,” Sherman says. “A lot of interest, he’ll go pretty high in the draft this year.”

Delaware is 30-17 on the season and they visit Northeastern this weekend.